507 
S T JE 
The stadtholder, of Holland, was the first member of 
the republic: he was chief of all the courts of justice, 
and might preside therein when he pleased. All sentences, 
judgments, &c., were dispatched in his name. When 
an office became vacant in any of the courts, the state 
proposed three persons to the stadtholder, who chose one 
of them. He even pardoned criminals, which is sovereign 
prerogative: and he had the choice of scabines, or chief 
magistrates, in each city ; to which end the council of the 
city always presented him two persons, one of whom he 
appointed. 
In several cities he had the same right of nominating the 
burgo.-masters and counsellors; as at Rotterdam, Dort, &c. 
He had also a power to cashier the magistrates, and put others 
in their room, when he found it necessary for the public good, 
upon giving- a reason for the same. 
By article VI. of the union of Utrecht, the Stales consti¬ 
tuted him arbiter of all the differences that might arise be¬ 
tween the states of the several provinces, or between the cities 
and the members of the states. 
To the dignity of stadtholder was inseparably annexed 
that of captain and admiral-general of the province; in 
which quality Jie named all the officers, and disposed of all 
military posts. He took care of the execution of the ordi¬ 
nances of the states; and his authority gave him a right to 
receive and give audience to ambassadors from foreign 
princes, and even to send ambassadors on his own private 
affairs. 
The office of stadtholder was very ancient: the counts, 
not being able to reside in Holland, appointed stadtholders 
to command in their absence in the several provinces; be¬ 
sides a governor-general of all the seventeen provinces of 
the Netherlands. 
William I. prince of Orange, was made stadtholder of 
Holland and Zealand in 1576, and soon after of the pro¬ 
vinces of Guelders, Utrecht, and Overyssel, at the time when 
the Dutch shook off the Spanish yoke; which enabled him 
to contribute greatly to that happy event. 
In 1584, when William I. was assassinated, the same 
dignity was conferred, by the same provinces, on his son 
prince Maurice, who was succeeded by his brother Frederic- 
Henry in 1625. Upon his death, in 1647, his son, 
William II., became stadtholder, and he possessed this dig¬ 
nity till his death in 1650. The ambitious views of this 
prince having given offence to the provinces of the republic, 
they took measures to reduce the authority of the stadtholder; 
and the province Gf Holland formed a design of excluding 
his son William III. prince of Orange afterwards king 
of England, from the dignity possessed by his ancestors. 
However, in 1672, Holland, alarmed at the progress of 
Lewis XIV., declared William stadtholder, and captain- 
general of the forces of the republic, with the same power 
which his predecessors had enjoyed. Their example was 
followed by four other provinces; and, in 1674, on account 
of his signal services to the states of Holland, they declared 
him hereditary stadtholder, and determined that his dignity 
should descend to his male heirs. He was succeeded by his 
appointed heir, the prince of Nassau-Dietz, hereditary 
stadtholder of the provinces of Friesland and Groningen, 
from whom the dignity' descended to his son, William- 
Charles-Henry-Frison. In 1722 he was named stadtholder 
by the province of Guelderland. 
In 1747, the stadtholdership was extended to all the seven 
united provinces, and made hereditary in the male and 
female representatives of the family of Orange. The title has 
since been changed to that of King. 
STADT-ILM. See Ilmstadt. 
STADT-OLDENDORF. See Oldendorf. 
STiEHELlNA [so named from John Henry Staehelin, 
and his son Benedict, Swiss physicians], in Botany, a genus 
of the class syngenesia, order polygamia asqualis, natural 
order of compositse discoidese, cinarocephalae (Juss). —Ge¬ 
neric Character. Calyx: common oblong, cylindric, im¬ 
bricate : scales lanceolate, erect, terminated by a shorter 
coloured scalelet. Corolla: compound uniform, tubular. 
S T A 
Corollets hermaphrodite, equal. Proper, one-petalled, fun¬ 
nel-form : border five-cleft, equal, acute, bell-shaped. Sta¬ 
mina: filaments to each five, capillary. Anthers connate, 
tailed. Pistil: germ very short. Style filiform. Stigma 
double, oblong, obtuse, erect. Pericarp none. Calyx un¬ 
changed. Seeds solitary, oblong, very short, four-cornered. 
Down branched or cloven, longer than the calyx. Recep¬ 
tacle chaffy, flat. Chaffs very short, permanent.— Essential 
Character. Anthers tailed. Down branched. Receptacle 
with very short chaffs. 
1. Staehelina gnaphaloides.—Leaves filiform, tomentose; 
scales of the calyx lanceolate, membranaceous at the tip, 
and reflexed. This rises with a shrubby stalk about three 
feet high, and divides into several branches. Flowers ter¬ 
minating in single heads, which are pretty large.—Native of 
he Cape of Good Hope. 
2. Staehelina dubia.—Leaves linear, toothletted ; scales of 
the calyx lanceolate; seed-down twice as long as the calyxes. 
This is a biennial plant, with the stalks rarely above a foot 
high.—Native of Spain the South of France and Italy. 
3. Staehelina arborescens.—Leaves oval; stem arborescent. 
—Native of the South of France, and the island of Candia. 
4. Staehelina fruticosa.—Leaves lanceolate, obtuse; stem 
shrubby.—Native of the Levant. 
5. Staehelina spinosa.—Leaves awl-shaped, spinescent: 
with a spinule at the base on each side; stem shrubby.— 
Native of Egypt. 
6. Staehelina hastata.—Leaves hastate, hoary; stem shrub¬ 
by.—Native of Egypt. 
7. Staehelina ilicifolia.—Leaves opposite, on very short 
petioles, cordate, toothed, shining above, tomentose beneath; 
stem arborescent. This is a tree or shrub, with ever-green 
shining leaves, and round, pubescent, closely leaved branch- 
lets, flowering at the top.—Native of New Granada. 
8. Staehelina corymbosa.—Leaves wedge-shaped, prae- 
morse; flowers corymbed.—Native of the Cape of Good 
Hope. 
9. Staehelina chamaepeuce.—Leaves linear, clustered, very 
long, revolute.—Native of the island of Crete or Candia. 
10. Staehelina imbricata.—Leaves awl-shaped, erect, to. 
mentose.—Native of the Cape of Good Hope. 
Propagation and Culture. —Plant cuttings in any of the 
summer months, covering them closely with a bell or hand¬ 
glass. When they have made good roots, take them up 
carefully, and plant them in pots, filled with fresh light earth, 
not over rich, and place them in the shade until they have 
taken new root; then remove them to a sheltered situation, 
and in autumn place them in the house. This sort does not 
always ripen its seed in England. Several of the other 
species may have the same treatment, whenever they shall 
be introduced. Others are raised from seed. 
STAEL-HOLSTEIN (Anne-LouiseDe), was the daughter 
of the famous Necker (see his article), and of Susan, his wife, 
a woman of considerable attainments, and who wrote some 
short but meritorious essays. The birth of Anne Louise 
took place in the year 1766, and her infancy and childhood 
passed at Paris under the superintendence of her enlightened 
parents, and in frequent intercourse with all the learned, 
but perhaps dangerous philosophers who visited her mother. 
When she was little more than 14 years of age, the resigna¬ 
tion of her father’s official situation took place, and the family 
retired to Copet, a barony in Switzerland; and six years 
elapsed before Necker re-appeared, permanently, on the public 
stage at Paris. In 1787 we find him in that capital attack¬ 
ing Calonne; and the years 1788 and 1789 constitute the 
£era which so intimately connected his history with the des¬ 
tinies of France, and the annals of Europe. 
It was during one of the occasional visits of the Necker 
family to Paris, prior to 1787, that Eric Magnus Baron de 
Stael, by birth a Swede, was introduced to their acquaint¬ 
ance by Count de Creutz, the Swedish ambassador. He was 
young and handsome, and succeeded in pleasing Made, 
moiselle Necker, who consented to become his wife. Count 
de Creutz was shortly after recalled to Stockholm, to be 
placed at the head of the Foreign Department, and Baron 
